


For Your Entertainment

by guilttrippings



Series: For Your Entertainment [1]
Category: My Chemical Romance
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Drug Addiction, Drug Use, M/M, Rehabilitation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-08
Updated: 2015-03-08
Packaged: 2018-03-16 22:12:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3504623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/guilttrippings/pseuds/guilttrippings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gerard Way is the vocalist for the successful New Jersey band, Downside. The band has just gotten signed to their first major record label and everything is looking up for Gerard and the three other members in the band; that is until Gerard lands himself into rehab for his alcoholic tendencies. On his first day, he gets into an altercation with another patient at Drug Rehab Los Angeles and they're both made to share a room. The two who started on the wrong foot, quickly get closer and closer; but nothing good ever lasts for some people.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For Your Entertainment

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic I've written in about a year or so. I love the idea of it and I'm really excited about it. I hope I can stick with this until the end because it's going to be a long one. 
> 
> Also, I have no fucking clue how being signed to a label works so this is just how i imagine it. 
> 
> Title: For Your Entertainment by Adam Lambert  
> Story inspiration: Ashley (bobblowdryar)
> 
> I own the characters of Devon, Caiden, Grayson and Eddie. Brett Gurewitz and Gerard Way belong to themselves. I also own the band name and the songs mentioned in the story.

Gerard looked out the large window in the Los Angeles loft apartment sitting room smiling to himself. It's been almost a whole day since the plane from Newark landed at LAX and he's still in shock about his band possibly getting signed to Epitaph Records, a record label that signed a lot of his favorite bands: Alkaline Trio, The Menzingers, Pennywise, and Architects. Now, his band, Downside, might actually transform from a basement, nobody band into a band where at least a small population of people know about there music and can call themselves fans. Even if they don't get to the size of Green Day or Smashing Pumpkins, just having one or two people listening to Downside's songs regularly is a success to Gerard. 

As the cars five stories below Gerard rushed past the building, Gerard couldn't stop living in his own thoughts. What if, one day, Downside does get as big as Green Day or Smashing Pumpkins; or even bigger than them? Gerard looked up to those two bands since he was in diapers, they inspired him to begin his music career journey and even the thought of being compared to those two monumental band made Gerard's hands shake ever so slightly. Of course, being signed to a real record label and living in Los Angeles with his best friends is the best thing that has and will ever happen to him; but being on the same levels of his lifetime icons would be an absolute dream come true.

"Gerard," The bassist, Grayson, called from the other side of the loft, pulling Gerard out of his fantasies. Gerard averted his eyes from the bustling city outside to the younger man standing around the door with the other two men in the band, Caiden, Downside's guitarist, and Devon, the drummer. "We're leaving." Grayson smiled, putting his hand on the doorknob gently. 

Gerard's smile, if possible, grew larger. He nodded his head and followed the rest of the band out the door and down the hallway. 

"I can't believe it," Devon beamed as the four boys quickly ran down the stairs to the main lobby of the apartment building. "We're actually getting signed to a real record label and we're gonna be an actual band, with actual fans and an actual tour!" Devon skipped the last three steps of the third floor's stairwell, passing the other three. 

The apartment building wasn't exactly the most posh place to be living in; it's actually the furthest thing from luxurious. It's a five story complex with about five lofts on each floor. Each loft looks exactly the same; open floor-plan, one bedroom one bathroom with a decent-on-the-smaller-size sitting room. The dining table has to be placed right outside the kitchen since there is no designated dining room for the table and chairs. Yeah, the loft is a bit on the smaller side for four guys to be living in all together, but the price was good and it's a hell of a lot better than living in the van that they used to travel around from town to town while touring. Aside from the apartment the band have rented out, the only major issue with the complex is the broken elevator that the owner says he doesn't have the money to pay someone to fix it. Everything else is fairly nice. 

"I know. This is all like so surreal. I don't think this is actually happening." Caiden said, following quickly after Devon. 

"Guys, I know we're all excited about possibly getting signed to this record label--" Grayson started but was soon cut off by groans from the guitarist and drummer. 

"Yeah, Grayson, we know." Devon started, stopping and turning towards Grayson who stopped mid-stair flight. 

"'We're not even sure if we'll get signed. They might not like us. They might think our music is the worst shit since Creed' or whatever." Caiden mimicked Grayson, using a ridiculous phony voice.

"Okay, mock me all you want but it's true." Grayson stated, continuing their decent down the stairs. The thought had escaped Gerard's mind until that moment. There is still the possibility of not getting signed to the record label. If they don't get signed, Gerard doesn't even know where they'll go from there. They spent all the money they had saved up since junior year of high school on the apartment and the plane tickets to get to LA. If they don't get signed, they won't be able to afford to the rent on the apartment and they won't have enough money to get a flight back to New Jersey. They'll be stuck in California on the streets as beggars. 

"Hey, Gerard?" Caiden called from the platform between the third and second floor flight of stairs. Gerard looked up and at his friend, who was giving him a worried look. "You okay?"

Gerard nodded his head, trying to give a reassuring smile, but failing. "Yeah. I was just thinking." The two continued down the stairs towards their fates. 

//

The four band mates sat in the big, black, leather seats that are shown on television programs in professional places. Gerard was looking down at the floor nervously, bouncing his legs while they waited for their manager, Eddie, to come out of the record label owner's office and tell them how it's going to work. Gerard was trying to tell himself that it was all going to work out fine and that nothing was going to go wrong; but it was hard. Knowning that there is even the slightest chance of not being signed and his dreams to come crashing down around him scared him shit less. This is something that he's wanted to do since he was eleven, and now it's here. Gerard will do anything to pursue this dream of his on his first shot. 

The large black wood doors in front of them open up and Eddie walks out, along with another man dressed in a black suit. Gerard feels his heart slowly grow in pace with each step Eddie and the man take towards them. There is a point when Gerard is scared that Devon besides him might actually hear the thumping in his chest.

"Boys, as you might know, this is Brett Gurewitz. He owns Epitaph Records. He'll be the one deciding you're future today." Eddie says, making a large gesture towards Brett with his hands. 

Did you have to say it like that, Eddie? Gerard thinks as he stands to his feet to shake Brett's hand. Not only is Gerard nervous to make a fool of himself in front of a very large record label, he now has the chance of making a fool of himself in front of the people he looked up to growing up. Just great. 

"I've given your EPs a thorough listen and I've enjoyed what I've heard." Holy shit. "I'm getting a very Misfit, Smashing Pumpkins, David Bowie vibe from the songs." Holy shit. "I'm very interested in what you four might create in the future and I would like to help you begin that journey." Holy. Shit. Gerard swore he was going to bend over and throw up on the nice white carpet of the waiting room right there and them. 

"Thank you, sir. We're all very big fans of your bands. It's an honor to even be considered to be signed by your label." Grayson said, smiling wide. Fuck, why didn't Gerard think to say that?

Brett smiles and meets Gerard's eyes. Gerard tries to look less nervous and smile at least a little bit; but Gerard knows it's a nervous smile. Brett slowly pulls his eyes from Gerard's and looks at them all. "I will just need you boys to play one or two songs for me here so I can see how you are in person. If you reach my standards, consider you signed." Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Don't puke, Gerard, don't puke. "However, if I don't like what I hear and seem, you'll have to look else where to be signed." Gerard inhaled sharply and nodded his head slightly. 

Brett smiled, his eyes meet Gerard's again. "I'll see you boys in a little while. Good luck." With that, Brett walked back into his office, the doors closing behind him. Gerard looked at Devon, Caiden and Grayson, wondering what the hell they were thinking while that happened. They were all smiling like idiots at each other and softly whispering about what songs they were going to play and how they would play it. Gerard sighed, sat down back in the chair and put his head in his hands. He can't blow this. This is going to be their only chance. They need this.

//

The band fought for about an hour and a half about which two songs that they were going to play out of the nine songs the band have produced. Caiden suggested that they play the song that they were planning on recording the next time they were in their makeshift, homemade studio "Ignorance Is..." but everyone thought it would be too risky to play a song that no one has even heard of before; so that idea was quickly shot down. Everyone liked the idea of playing "Karma" and "Give Me All Your Despair", which were two of the hardest songs vocally for Gerard. He protested those two, saying that he would need more than 45-minutes of practice to pull off those two songs well; but his band mates told him that he'll do perfectly fine if he just doesn't over think anything. That ship sailed long ago Gerard thought as he set up the microphone stand in the practice room they were directed towards. 

45 minutes and three semi perfect run through's of each song later, the band was standing before Brett and a few other associates or something in Brett's main office. Gerard was trying his best to not look up from the floor and just act like he was doing some sort of vocal warm ups or something, but he knew that the front man should make semi occasional eye contact with his audience. 

Gerard felt a gentle hand on his back and he looked up quickly to see Caiden standing by his side. "You ready to start?" He asked, smiling brightly, looking probably just as nervous as Gerard looked right now. Gerard took one last deep breath and nodded his head. Caiden nodded and resumed his position to the left of Gerard. 

Once Gerard heard the opening guitar riff to "Karma" he started to calm down a little bit and told himself to not sweat anything or he'll fuck it all up for them. 

The first songs went perfect, nothing went wrong and Gerard didn't even remember why he was worrying in the first place, he's done this a hundred times. He didn't remember until the first chorus of the second song when he started singing the lyrics to the "Ignorance is..." chorus instead of "Give Me All Your Despair". 

Gerard knew he couldn't just stop and wait until the chorus for "Give Me All Your Despair" was done and start singing the right lyrics, so he just continued singing the wrong lyrics hoping that it would somehow mesh well with the instruments. Of course, it didn't. Gerard mentally kicked himself while he proceeded on singing the wrong lyrics until the end of the song, too afraid to change back over to the right lyrics and possibly singing the wrong words for that part of the song.

At the end of the long two and a half minutes, Gerard looked to the right towards Grayson. He was giving him a half pissed-half nervous glare. Gerard frowned and looked towards Brett and the other men sitting with him. Brett was half smiling with his eyebrows furrowed, clapping his hands slowly, possibly sarcastically. Gerard smiled weakly and turned his head towards the floor. Fuck.

 

"Thank you, boys. That was... interesting." Brett spoke slowly as he stood from his seat behind the big oak desk. "We'll contact you in a couple days with our decision. Thank you again for coming out. We'll be contact very soon."

The band smiled and shook everyone's hands as the exited the office. Once they were outside of the record label building, everyone's eyes landed on Gerard. Gerard wished he could just crawl in some near by hole or something and never be seen again.

//

Three days passed and they hadn't heard anything from anyone. A week went by, nothing. By the twelfth day with no phone call or email, everyone had give up hope. Gerard kicked himself every day for fucking up the song. He knew it was his fault that they weren't going to get signed. It's his fault they're all gonna have to live in some alley and beg someone for money and be known as "the band that could have been but never was". It was all Gerard's fault.

On the fifteenth day with no sign of being signed, it happened. The land line phone had rung while everyone was watching some shitty daytime television program. They each gave each other a skeptical look. A look that said "could it really be them?". The phone had rung a few times before Devon had gotten up to answer it.

"Hello?" He said slowly, not wanting to sound too anxious.

There was a long pause. All eyes were on Devon who's back was facing them. "Yeah, I get it. We understand. Thank you." Devon mumbled, hanging up the phone and setting it back down on the base. Devon turned back to the other three with a saddened look cast over his face. Gerard's heart had then fallen deep into the pit of his stomach. He looked between Grayson and Caiden, who both looked deeply hurt by this. Gerard quickly averted his eyes away from them and sat up straight. 

"Okay, hey," Gerard started, trying not to punch himself in the face for fucking it all up "Let's not dwell on this. It's fine-- I mean, it's not fine, like... y'know? We;ll just have to keep tyring until someone thinks that we're good enough to be on their label or whatever. We just have to remember that we tried our best and I guess our best just isn't good enough for a label like that. We'll write more songs and like, who knows maybe in a few weeks or months or years we'll be this huge band and Brett will regret not signing us when he had--"  
Gerard was cut off by laughter from the other three people in the room. Gerard furrowed his eyebrows and darted his eyes between each of them as they all cracked up from something that shouldn't be funny. 

"Gerard, Eddie got a call last week from them." Devon choked out in between gasps. "They said that they're going to sign us to their label." More laughter arose from the trio.

Gerard's jaw dropped up and he felt an anger bubbling up inside his stomach. How could they keep something like that from him? Why would they do that? "What... why? How could you keep this from me?" Gerard said raising his voice, still flicking his eyes between the other. 

Grayson took a deep breath and wiped his eyes. "Because we knew that if we pretended like we didn't get it you'd admit it being all your fault that we didn't get. it."

Gerard felt anger boiling inside him even more, but then it hit him. Downside got signed, to a real record label. He cracked a smile and started laughing along with the others until everyone in the room was laughing so hard tears were streaming from their eyes and they were all clutching their stomachs. This was only the start of a long journey for the band.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. This chapter is a little bland since it's just starting out but hopefully it'll pick up a little in the next few chapters. Also, I'm not sure if every chapter will be 2k or more words but I'm going to try to keep them all about the same length (so between 1k and 3k)
> 
> Feedback is always welcomed and appreciated. Tell me if there are any grammar or spelling mistakes; there might be a few since I typed this at 5 in the morning.
> 
> This work is also featured on wattpad: http://www.wattpad.com/story/34475525-for-your-entertainment
> 
> Chapter title: Daydreaming by Paramore
> 
> I own the characters of Devon, Caiden, Grayson and Eddie. Brett Gurewitz and Gerard Way belong to themselves. I also own the band name and the songs mentioned in the story.


End file.
